Shamrock v Gracie in San Jose

riday evening found me in line at the HP Pavillion to see Daniel Puder as well as a few others in the first sanctioned mixed-martial arts fight in CA. owyn introduced me to the world of then-called "Ultimate Fighting" back in college in 1993. At the time in the sport's infancy, there were still pure practioners of various fighting styles (sumo, karate, ninjitsu, etc.) as contenders. As the dominance of grappling-style fighting (exemplified by Gracie-style Jiu-Jitsu) reigned in the intervening years, even 'pure' school fighters had to incorporate grappling/wrestling into their techniques, if only to know ways to resist being taken to the ground from an experienced grappler.

The title fight of Shamrock vs. Gracie was, in retrospect, rather anticlimactic - after 23 seconds of feints and parries, Shamrock took down Caesar Gracie with a hard punch and prepared to rain down a barrage of fists on Gracie's head until the Gracie corner threw in the towel conceding the match. Meh.

Upon announcing Cung Le's entrance to the cage, an ocean of Vietnamese flags rose from the audience as locals cheered for their champion. His fight (against another kickboxer Brian Ebersole) was impressive, exchanging countless telling blows before he triumphed in a decision after five rounds.

Daniel Puder, who I've been working with on some business matters, extended his 1-0 Win/Loss record by crushing his opponent in the first round and now has an MMA record of 2-0. Fair warning - don't let that man put you in a headlock. HA!

After the fight, we headed to the Afterparty at Studio 8 in San Jose for celebratory drinks and other mischief.

Photos:

Ring babe.

Cung Le will ruin your day.

Wrath of Le

Middleweight division fighter

Ring babe 2. What? WHAT?

Daniel Puder, 10 seconds from victory

Line to the fight. 20,000 people in one arena, the largest MMA audience ever.

"So what if I did cut in line. What the hell are you going to do about it?"